Concerned about farmers' plight in Noida: Rahul

Last updated on: May 16, 2011 20:23 IST

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday evening to 'highlight the plight of farmers in Greater Noida.'

"I am very concerned with what is going on in villages of Noida. The situation is still pretty bad. We are confident that the Land Acquisition Bill will be passed in the next session of Parliament," Gandhi told mediapersons after the meeting.

"They wanted to meet the prime minister, so I facilitated this. Women have been raped and that there is a pile of ashes 70 feet high in the villages of Parsaul and Bhatti, which have become the epicentre of the farmers' protests. Severe atrocities are taking place there," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the Bhatta Parsaul village in the Greater Noida area of Uttar Pradesh witnessed high drama following Rahul Gandhi's arrest.

Gandhi, who spent almost 19 hours at Bhatta Parasul, was arrested under Sec 151 CrPC at around 11 pm on Wednesday and was taken to the Kasna police station.

He was later released on bail by the Uttar Pradesh police and brought to Delhi.

The farmers have been agitating since January demanding higher compensation for their lands acquired by the state government.

Their demand is that only half their lands should be acquired, while the rest should be handed over to the farmers after development.

They also want 25 percent reservation for farmers in all schemes of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway.

The farmers have also been demanding that the authorities should give 120 square metre plots to landless farmers and a compensation of Rs. 5,00,000 for each acre of acquired land.